....I think before I bought it I posted pics but I can't find them...it has rust holes in the bottom of the front fenders, and the driver's seat is torn. The glovebox door was ripped off, but I fixed that (bought the door on eBay for $25, IIRC). Other than that, it's pretty good cosmetically (red leather otherwise fine w/normal patina, body has no dents, all glass good, a few scratches on original paint, dings here and there, but quite presentable for 22 years old). Also, pretty much everything (heat, a/c, seats, locks, sunroof, 3 windows, sometimes 4) work, and it has a decent Alpine CD stereo. I also like that I never see them any more, it's a tank, replacement tires are 14s, thus cheap, it gets decent mileage and isn't as slow as I thought it would be (though I have little to compare it to). So far, I feel like I did OK.

nah....I wasn't looking for a BMW when I bought this car, but it was there and under $1000 (this was my main criteria); I do this every couple years: have a beater, then it dies, then I do carless for a while (I live in the city, partner has a car, plenty of public trans), then I get another one. A little strange, I know. I saw this car and was more happy about the prospect of this than, say, a 92 Cavalier or a completely clapped out Camry or something. We'll see how it goes.

....but I'm pretty sure there's no way I'll put more than about 6k/year on this thing, and that's stretching it (I think I've put on about 2000 since the end of July when it was purchased). I may occasionally drive down to mom's (~200 miles), but that's about as far as I'd be comfortable travelling in a 20+ year-old car. Basically, it's just an errand-mobile, and gets me to my bartending gig (4 miles away, two nights a week).

* 1995 ford escort lx sport - mint low miler previously owned by a doctor. extremely cheap to run. Anything that broke was extremely cheap to fix even at a shop. Everybody will think you are absolutely broke though, better be OK with that

* 1995 jeep cherokee 2 dr 4x4 - this was a cool truck, really simple, good looking and everyone loves it. Lots of stuff to add/modify and things that broke were reasonably cheap to fix.

The private party seller is my favorite place to buy beaters. If you're careful you can find a basically sound vehicle that has acquired too many cosmetic and minor mechanical defects for the owner to put up with any more. Most of them can be fixed cheap or ignored (who needs AC on a winter beater).

Last year I picked up a 1988 GMC van from a neighbor for 900 bucks. It's not pretty but it has only has 120K miles and an engine with only 25K on it. I use it to haul stuff on the farm. The tomatoes don't care how it looks.

Another place to find beaters is you local indie garage. Some times these places buy a few cars at auctions or from customers, fix them up and sell them as a sideline. I recently picked up a 1993 Caddy Deville with 80K miles at my local garage. Only paid $1200. I'm hoping to get at least 40K miles out of each of them before they start costing me too much.